Activities at Hethersett Hall Care Home

Earlier this week we spent some time in the courtyard planting herbs in our new planters that our maintenance team made for the residents to enjoy. We planted rosemary, curry plants, chives, lavender, and coriander.  The residents will enjoy taking care and watching them grow and in turn meeting physical and sensory needs.

The staff and residents of Hethersett Hall made the most of the beautiful weather by having a picnic in the garden. Staff prepared tables on the veranda for residents to sit and enjoy a Pimms and lemonade with their lunch. Our chef Camelia cooked a choice of burgers, BBQ chicken, chips and variety of salad followed by sweet treats for dessert including ice creams. The sunshine and delicious food - what more could you need! A great day for all!

Alan Thomson and his wife Audrey have been a residents of Hethersett Hall since 2016 and in that time Alan has shared many lovely stories with us. Alan is such a gentleman with a fantastic sense of humour.

Alan joined the Territorial Army in April 1939 as signalman Thomson 2579091 in the Middlesex Yeomanry.
He was called up in August and was sent to Egypt the following year where he started training for desert warfare. By 1941 he was on his way to Greece as a motorcycle dispatch rider. He was part of the evacuation from Greece to Crete and then went on to Palestine, then to other areas of the Middle East where he took part in the terrible battle of El Alamein, onto Italy, finally ending up in Germany in 1945.  This was where he was on VE Day 1945 and he was not demobbed until April 1946. 

Alan has never dwelt on or complained about the hardships or bad experiences of the war. Instead, he likes to tell some funny stories, including the time when he hid behind a tree to avoid a German Stuka. It wasn’t until the plane veered away, the pilot probably, as Alan says, with a smile on his face, that he realised how thin the tree was, and being the only one for miles around was hardly much of a hiding place!  Alan was completely alone as he was riding his motorbike to dispatch messages from one place to another.

Last weekend we received a surprise visit from members of Norwich Football Club with a signed jersey, some delicious carrot cake made by Delia Smiths catering team and a lovely letter of support. The team at Hethersett Hall are so grateful for the many acts of kindness we have received throughout this tough time.

We thought it would be nice to display a wishing tree in reception with our resident’s wishes, hopes and prayers for the future. We hope our wishing tree will give people a reason to smile and stay positive.

Earlier this week we spent time in the garden planting sunflower seeds. Residents enjoyed planting their own sunflower in a little pot. Once the sunflowers begin to grow our maintenance team and gardener will plant them in the garden so residents can be supported to water and care for their sunflower. To add a little more fun to this activity the resident who has the tallest sunflower will win a prize!

We all had such a lovely morning with an added bonus enjoying the sunshine from the veranda.

We sent sunflower seeds to little visitors from Friend in Deed so they can enjoy growing a sunflower too and share photos with their friends at Hethersett Hall.